In Too Deep
by Miss Discombobulated
Summary: I wasn't meant to be an avatar driver, I was meant to be an assistant overseer. Why did they make me feel like I belonged? Why did I want to belong? I'm human, not Na'vi, but it's too late now.
1. Prologue

**Prologue  
Disclaimer: **I don't own Avatar; if I did I wouldn't be writing this fanfic would I?

* * *

_Pandora, like in Greek Mythology, a box that held inexplicable dangers, yet also held hope. I think the same can be said for the planet when I first heard of it. I have the qualifications to work as an biochemical engineer, however it's hard to find a job when there's no natural resources left in the world that I live in._

_So there I was working as a waitress just to pay the bills and get food on the table. Pandora was still constantly on my mind. I've heard many stories of lush, green forests, the kind I've only ever seen in pictures, but have never had the opportunity to see or feel for myself. But fate presented an opportunity and I accepted. In three years I was to go be an assistant overseer for the RDA and their mining projects on Pandora. However Fate's bitch of a sister Destiny had other things in store._


	2. Fate's Bitch of a Sister

**Fate's Bitch of A Sister  
Disclaimer: **I don't own Avatar.

* * *

_For three years I studied alongside two others going to Pandora, Norm Spellman and Thomas Sully. They'd been on the program two years ahead of me, but they were all too helpful in helping me catch up. I heard about the natives of Pandora, the Na'vi, from them, they taught me about their culture and the language that they spoke. They also spoke of the ingenious way that the Na'vi managed the resources of the forest, taking enough to sustain their people and the forest. I wished that humans had managed the environment that way. Of course the program was optional as I was only to be an assistant overseer for the RDA, but I was fascinated. But little did I know that the things that I had learned would soon be very important when I arrived on Pandora._

* * *

Norm Spellman opened his eyes and slowly felt his way out of the cryosleep capsule. If he was awake it meant they were there, they were finally at Pandora! "Now people do not panic," a male voice called out, "You have all been in cryosleep for five years and nine months. You may feel dizzy, hungry or nauseous. If you do feel nauseous feel free to use the available barf bags."

He then heard a female voice chuckle from above him, "You'd think that they'd have a more professional term than barf bag."

Smiling down at him was a 27 yr old woman with short black hair that was closely cropped to her head, with the exception for the fringe and bangs that curved around her face, although at the current moment her hair was floating because of the lack of gravity. This was his friend, Kiseki Stewart, soon to be assistant overseer for the RDA.

"Kiseki!" he yelled, "Wait up!"

"If you're too slow you'll get left behind," she said, playfully floating out of his grasp.

"Quit playing around over there!" the man who yelled earlier said, "Or you'll both get left behind!"

"I don't think he's kidding around Kiseki," Norm said, pulling her down to his level by her ankle.

"Okay," she sighed, and then looked down sadly, "Tommy should be here."

Norm patted her on the shoulder, "I know, but I heard he had a twin brother called Jake who took over his contract."

"Yeah, the whole DNA math-up stuff for the neural link for the Avatar Program, right?" Kiseki said, "Well let's go."

It was unfortunate, but Tommy had died just days before they were meant to board the shuttle for Pandora. He was shot for the money in his wallet and it was devastating when Norm and Kiseki first heard of it.

* * *

Kiseki changed into her normal clothes when they were at the ISV Venture Star. Then she and Norm boarded the shuttle that would take them to Hell's Gate, the RDA base. She was lucky to get a seat next to Norm, who had a huge grin on his face. "If we didn't have to be strapped down you'd be jumping up and down in your seat wouldn't you?" Kiseki asked.

"Oh hell yeah!" Norm exclaimed.

"You're not the only one," she replied, "I can't wait to see an actual forest for myself."

"Alright people," barked out a dark-skinned man, "Exo-packs on. The air on Pandora is toxic; you're unconscious in 20 seconds and dead in 4 minutes. Let nobody die on my watch, it looks terrible on my record."

Norm and Kiseki quickly put on the masks that got handed to them. 'What an asshole,' Kiseki thought.

Soon the shuttle landed. "Okay everyone, head straight to the building and do not stop no matter what," the man yelled as the ramp was put down.

"Let's go," Norm smirked, "If you're too slow you'll get left behind."

"Hey! That's my saying!" Kiseki exclaimed, chasing after him.

As they walked in Kiseki couldn't help but gape at the amount of weaponry she saw, when she had read Dr. Augustine's book Dr. Augustine had said that the Na'vi were peaceful people. She was even more shocked when she saw large arrows sticking out of the wheels of a mining truck. "Come on Kiseki," Norm said anxiously, pulling on her arm, "We're going to be late for our safety briefing."

* * *

They had arrived on time; however Kiseki had to disagree with Colonel Quaritch, the man apparently responsible for their safety. He claimed that the Na'vi wanted to use their eyes for jujubes. A while later she glared at Norm who had started poking her in the shoulder. "What?" she hissed.

"The briefing is over," he said, "Where do you have to go?"

Kiseki looked down at the schedule she got given and raised an eyebrow, "It says that I have to go to the Avatar centre."

"Are you sure?" Norm asked, reading over her shoulder. His eyebrows also went up in surprise. "That's weird, are you sure that's your schedule?" he said.

"Yeah," she said, "There's my name right there. Look, why don't we just go down to the centre and see what's going on."

"Sure, oh look, I think that's Jake!" Norm gasped, pulling Kiseki over to a man in a wheel chair. Kiseki sighed, he looked so much like Tommy, well, they were identical twins, but Tommy was the one who was supposed to be there with them, not his brother. She stayed silent as Norm did all the talking.

* * *

They were greeted by a man of Indian descent who introduced himself as Dr. Max Patel, "Norm, Jake Kiseki, welcome to the Avatar Driving Program."

"Wait," Kiseki protested, "I'm supposed to be an assistant overseer, why am I in the Avatar Program?"

"Wait, you didn't know you were transferred to the Avatar program?" Dr. Patel asked, clearly confused.

"Kiseki's in the avatar program," Norm interrupted, "But how?"

"Well there was a mix up with your file and by the time we figured out you weren't in the program it was too late to stop the process without flushing 500 million down the drain," he explained, "We were lucky you had some good credentials in science. Selfridge was supposed to contact you and tell you."

Kiseki frowned, "Well I didn't hear a thing until today."

Dr. Patel cleared his throat, "Well how would you three like to see your avatar's?"

Norm looked at Kiseki, concern on his face.

"Let's go," she said grudgingly.

* * *

Author's Note: This idea would not leave my mind alone, so I wrote it then decided to randomly publish. Yeah, hope y'all enjoy.


	3. Seeing Myself in Another Body

**Seeing Myself in Another Body  
Disclaimer: **I don't own Avatar.

* * *

There were three tanks in the room. Norm excitedly made a beeline straight for his avatar. Jake wheeled himself after Norm. As for Kiseki, she slowly walked towards the third tank which contained a more slender silhouette of an avatar compared to the other two, so she assumed that this one was hers. It was twice as large as she was. She looked carefully at its face, trying to find some semblance in its features compared to her own. Its hair was long, and some of it was free-flowing in the water. 'That's going to have to be fixed,' she thought sourly, 'I hate wearing my hair long...although I still need to keep the braid that contains the queue. "You are so lucky," a female voice gushed from behind her.

Kiseki spun around to find a woman her age, with black hair, a tanned complexion and green eyes.

"I'm Maria Suarez, cultural anthropologist and linguist," she introduced herself, "You must be Kiseki Stewart."

"Yeah, that's me," Kiseki sighed, "Wait, why am I so lucky?"

"Dr. Augustine and Dr. Patel decided to give these avatars a greater ratio of Na'vi to human DNA," Maria answered, "You'll see when you compare to my avatar."

"Kiseki!" Norm called out, "We're going into the link room."

Maria smiled, "I'll go in with you."

* * *

"And here comes Cinderella from the ball," Dr. Patel said.

Out of one of the links came a woman with red hair, it was Dr. Augustine!

"Uh, Grace, these are Norm, Kiseki and..." Dr. Patel was cut off by Dr. Augustine.

"Norm, Kiseki, how is your Na'vi?" she asked, completely ignoring Jake.

"_May the Great Mother smile upon our first meeting," _Norm recited.

_"I see you Dr. Augustine," _Kiseki smiled, _"And may the Great Mother smile upon our meeting today."_

"_Good tone, but your pitch is iffy in some places, and call me Grace," _she responded, then turned to Norm, _"You are good too, but a little bit formal."_

"_I studied for five years, but there is still much to learn," _Norm continued.

"Hi, I'm Jake," Jake introduced himself.

"Yeah, I know who you are," Grace answered, "But it's your brother I need, the scientist with the PhD who also studied for three years for this mission."

"He died," Jake said, "I know it's an inconvenience to everyone."

"How much lab training have you had?" she asked.

"I dissected a frog once," Jake deadpanned.

"Uh, actually there's more to hear than that Grace," Dr. Patel piped up, "Kiseki didn't even know she was transferred to the program until just now."

Grace scoffed, "You see, they're pissing on us without the courtesy of calling it rain. I'm going to see Selfridge."

"That might not be a good idea," Dr. Patel protested.

"I'm still going to kick his corporate butt for messing with my department," she yelled, already out the door.

Dr. Patel turned to Jake, "0800 tomorrow and please try to use big words."

"Hi," Maria said, turning to face Norm, "I'm Maria Suarez, cultural anthropologist and linguist."

Norm blushed deeply. "I-I'm Norm," he stuttered, "Xenoanthropologist."

'Yikes, he's doing that stutter again,' Kiseki thought, 'That can only mean one thing.'

* * *

When Kiseki and Norm first met he had stuttered when he introduced himself as well. They went on a few dates, but nothing happened. 'I guess he's moved on,' she thought, 'Good for him.' She turned around to find Maria standing behind her.

"So you didn't find out until today?" she asked.

"Well that is kind of obvious," Kiseki said with a roll of her eyes.

"If you want we can put one of the capsules into simulator mode," Maria offered, "It'll help you before doing the actual link tomorrow."

"Okay," Kiseki said, allowing herself to be led to a vacant neural link capsule, "If that's no problem with you."

"Not at all Miracle-girl," Maria answered.

"Miracle?" she asked.

Maria raised an eyebrow, "Kiseki, in Japanese it means miracle. Didn't you know that?"

"Well I was evacuated out of Japan as a baby before the rising sea levels caused the country to be submerged in water," Kiseki explained, "And I was put into a few foster families, but none of the families I stayed with had any knowledge of my culture, except for technological advances sometimes, but that was it."

"That was 2127 wasn't it?" Maria said sadly, "It really was such a shame that only children were evacuated, without much knowledge of their own heritage."

Kiseki shifted awkwardly, wanting to change the subject, "Can we go do this simulator thingy?"

"Sure thing."

* * *

Meanwhile Grace was at Selfridge's operating base. Parker Selfridge was currently occupied putting golf balls into a nearby coffee mug. "You see that?" he asked gleefully. Before he could put another ball in Grace kicked it out of the way.

"Oops," she said, although in all honesty she could care less about Parker's stupid putter.

"Wow Grace, do you know how much I love our little talks," Selfridge said sarcastically.

"You know Parker, I used to think it was benign neglect, but now I see that you are intentionally screwing me," Grace frowned.

"Is this about the marine?" Selfridge asked, "Because in all honesty I thought we were lucky that our dead guy had a twin brother that wasn't some oral hygienist or something. A marine that we can use, he's going to be assigned to your group as security detail."

"The last thing we need is another trigger happy moron out there," Grace snapped, "And it's not just that, you didn't even inform Kiseki Stewart that she was transferred to my department."

"Yeah, that screw up wasn't my fault," he sneered, "Don't expect me to take care of your department's screw ups."

Grace raised an eyebrow, "If I remember correctly it was YOUR department that handled her file and as she was originally going to be in YOUR department it was technically YOUR responsibility to contact her."

Selfridge rubbed his forehead with agitation then turned to Grace, "I've had more important things on my mind, come into my office."

Grace followed him into the office. "You see this Grace," he said in a condescending tone, holding up a dark rock, "Unobtanium, this is the reason why we are here, because it sells for 20million a kilo. This is what pays for your science. Which isn't making any progress might I add? Isn't the whole point, look like the natives, sound like the natives, learn what they want and solve this diplomatically. Because from where I'm standing relations with the natives have only been deteriorating."

"That tends to happen when you point machine guns at them," Grace answered.

"Look, there's nothing you can do now Grace, so why don't you go back to your science now, comprendė?" he said.

Grace groaned and stormed out of his office.

* * *

Kiseki collapsed dizzily on the bunk bed. If this was simulation, how bad was it going to be doing the real thing?

"Where were you?" Norm asked from the top bunk.

"Doing one and a half hours of neural link simulation with Maria," she answered wearily.

Norm sighed, "My first time was a bit disorientating, but over time you get used to it."

"Well I don't have that time," Kiseki protested, "Remember; we're doing the actual link up tomorrow!"

"Yeah, but don't stress, one and a half hours simulation is better than none," he advised, "Just sleep on it."

"Okay," she said, "Night."

* * *

The next morning Kiseki found herself waking up early and heading down to the cafeteria to eat breakfast, she was surprised to see Jake already there.

"Morning Jake," she greeted, taking the seat next to him.

"Morning, Kiseki, right?" he said.

"Yeah, I didn't expect anyone to be up this early," she said.

"Its habit for me," Jake said, "I usually get up this early to train, if you look outside now you'll find most of the Sec-ops out there."

"Ah, well I just couldn't sleep," she answered sheepishly, then taking a bite out of her toast.

"Hey, I was just wondering, what's with your name?" he asked, "It's not one that I've heard before."

"It's Japanese, and apparently it means Miracle," Kiseki answered, not really wanting to delve deeper into the topic.

The waking bell rang to signify that it was time to come to breakfast. As the Sec-ops walked in Kiseki put down her unfinished toast. "I'm not really so hungry now," she muttered, standing up and taking her coffee with her, "I'll see you in the link room Jake."

"Thank you," he called out.

"Why?" she asked.

"For being the first person that hasn't compared me to my brother," he answered.

* * *

At 8 o'clock Kiseki Norm and Jake were at the link room. "So, how much neural link simulation have you done?" Grace asked.

"I logged in 520 hours," Norm answered proudly.

She then turned to Kiseki, "I understand the circumstances if you haven't done any yet."

"I actually did one and a half hours with Maria last night," Kiseki answered.

Grace nodded, "Good to see you take the initiative. How about you Jake?"

"I read the manual," he answered blankly, "And I'll just see how it goes."

Grace stared at him incredulously, "So you figured you'd come out here to the most hostile environment known to man just to see how it goes? What was going through your head?"

"Maybe I was just sick of doctors telling me what I couldn't do," he replied, "And don't bother, I got this." And he hoisted himself up into the neural link capsule.

Grace stood over his link, "Now just let your mind go blank, it shouldn't be too hard."

"Kiss the darkest part of my lily-white..."

Grace slammed the capsule shut before Jake could finish.

"You better get going too Kiseki," Grace said.

She nodded before allowing the capsule to be closed over her head. She closed her eyes and hoped that things would go better than the night before.

* * *

My sight was slightly blurred as I opened my eyes. "Kiseki?" I heard Norm ask, "Are you awake?"

"It'll be awhile before she can respond Norm," a female voice said. Above me as a woman, slightly older than I was, with blonde hair and light brown eyes. "Hi, I'm Claire," she said, "Now I want you to stay still for a few minutes."

She shone a torch in my eyes and started snapping her fingers in my left ear. "She's reacting well, that's good."

Suddenly I heard Jake laughing to himself on the gurney to my right and a crash. "What's happening?" I asked. Slowly I got up so the blood wouldn't suddenly rush into my head, only to have my eye nearly taken out by Jake's tail.

"Watch it Jake!" I yelled, standing up, only to fall back on the gurney again, "You nearly took my freaking eye out!"

"Sorry," Jake yelled, ignoring the protests of Dr. Patel and tearing the door open to run out into the sunlight.

"I'll go get him," Norm said, standing up and taking off.

Claire and I looked at each other as the two idiots ran outside.

"Men."

* * *

When I was given the all-clear by Dr. Patel (who told me to call him Max) I walked slowly out into the sunlight in the clothes that have been given to me. Although the t-shirt was a little bit baggy, so I had to tie the bottom part of it into a knot so it was more form-fitting.

"Hey Kiseki!" Norm yelled, running over in normal clothing, "Isn't this awesome?"

As he ran by I yanked him on the tail, hard.

"Ow!" he yelped, "What was that for?"

"Leaving me behind on a gurney, that's what," I answered coolly.

"Oh, sorry," he said, sweat-dropping at the reminder, "I was just so excited." Then he turned to a vine, plucked a fruit and threw it to me, "Catch."

I caught the fruit and examined it; it wasn't like anything I've ever seen before.

"Try it," Norm said excitedly, "It's really good."

Hesitantly I took a bite, almost moaning as the taste filled my mouth. "Fwit's fwamazing," I said with my mouth still full.

"Hey Kiseki," Maria called, running over, "Good to see you out and about."

I looked closely at Maria in her avatar body, noticing how close to actual human proportionality it was and then looked down at my own, I looked anorexic!

"Hey! How come your clothes fit better?" I scowled.

"I told you," Maria answered, "Your avatar has more Na'vi DNA than mine, you don't even have eyebrows."

I instantly felt my forehead, and to my astonishment she was right, I had no eyebrows! I looked down at my hands, relieved to find that I still had five fingers, and I then held my foot up, finding five toes.

"Come on," she said, "We're going to get briefed in a few minutes."

* * *

"Okay," Grace said, "In two days we are embarking into the forest to take some samples from the trees there, and this is in the hope that the Omaticaya Clan, the clan that lives there see us and hopefully see that we don't mean the forest harm and take either Norm or Kiseki in."

"Wait," Kiseki interrupted, "Why me? Why not Maria?"

Maria shook her head sadly, "They've seen me before and refused to take me in, apparently I was more alien than Na'vi, so that's why Grace and Max increased the Na'vi DNA ratio this time around.

"Okay then," Kiseki sighed.

"You really think we could be taken in?" Norm asked excitedly, this was his biggest dream since he first started studying to be an anthropologist.

"Well you are a peaceful guy, and Kiseki would need to learn so she can see the forest properly," Grace answered, "You two have better chances as well." Then she turned to Jake, "As for you, don't say a word, let Norm and Kiseki do all the talking, are we clear?"

Jake nodded.

"Okay, let's link out and have dinner," Grace said, "You three have two days to get used to your bodies before we leave."

When they went into the cabin Kiseki turned to Maria, "Could you help me fix my hair?"

"Why?" Maria asked, "If you are taken in you'll probably be able to have it fixed there."

Kiseki sighed, "I just want to feel like myself again, and having my hair styled similar to the way it was before would help."

"I know how you feel," Maria smiled, "It's like a dream isn't it? That's why the Na'vi call us dream walkers, because we aren't really Na'vi and we have to wake up eventually."

Kiseki rolled her eyes, "I know that."

Maria took out a pair of scissors, "Come here."

Kiseki leaned back into the pillow, her head felt lighter already, she never really liked wearing her hair long, of course she still had her braid surrounding her queue, but at least her head didn't feel as heavy. "Good night Maria," she said.

"Night."

* * *

A/N: Yeah, I think _italics meaning Na'vi is kind of obvious. _Anyway, I have to take some creative licence here because I don't know the script for the movie word for word. If there are slip-ups, please let me know in a review.


	4. Unexpected Twist in the Adventure

**Unexpected Twist in the Adventure  
Disclaimer: **I don't own Avatar.

* * *

Two days had passed, during those two days we grew accustomed to our new bodies. Grace was a little bit pissed off with what I did with my hair, stating, "It's not a typical style with the Omaticaya and you may get ostracised for it." I shrugged it off, I just wanted to see the forest with my own eyes, in those two days I had caught glimpses, but I wanted an up close and personal look. We were currently in Trudy's SA-2 Samson, but she called it her 'baby'. I liked her, compared to the other Sec-ops that looked down on our department she thought that we were on to something. Jake was looking out the door with Norm while Maria and Grace were on the other side. I envied them because I was in the middle and the four of them blocked my view. As soon as we landed, Wainfleet, who also accompanied us jumped out with his gun pointed. "Stay with the plane," Grace ordered, then looked at Jake, "One idiot with a gun is enough."

"You the man doc," he said condescendingly.

Jake currently had his gun pointed at some prolemuris.

"They're just prolemuris," Grace said, "They're harmless. Calm down marine, you're starting to make me nervous."

A chuckle escaped my lips before I could hold it back in.

Jake sighed, "Glad to see you have faith in my abilities to protect you all."

I grabbed my pack and headed out.

"Kiseki, can you stay with marine over there," Grace said, "Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Okay," I answered, following Jake.

"How do we know if they see us?" Norm asked excitedly.

"Chances are that they already see us," Maria answered calmly, "Hey Norm, come look over here."

Grace, Norm and Maria examined some tree roots and took samples while I "babysat" Jake. Jake was seriously freaked out, and jumpy. "Listen to Grace Jake," I said, "Besides, you have me to tell you what to shoot at."

"I was told to shoot then look later," he scowled.

"Yeah, just shut up and listen to me," I said.

* * *

We walked and soon found some plants with red, spiral leaves, they were helicoradians. Jake hesitantly reached out to touch one, and it slipped into the ground quickly.

"Awesome," I said, reaching out to touch one for myself.

I withdrew my hand as the flower shrank into the ground.

Jake smirked, "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That depends, does it revolve around analysing and taking samples," I answered.

Jake face-palmed, "Is that all scientists ever think about?"

He proceeded to play with the other flowers.

"Cute," I mumbled, following him.

As soon as all the helicoradians were in the ground I gasped. Hiding behind them was a pack of hammerhead titanotheres. Jake noticed and quickly pulled me behind him.

"Don't shoot," I hissed, "It's armour is too thick, you'll piss it off."

"Listen to her Jake," Grace said; we saw her standing to the side with the others.

"It already looks pissed off," he said, pointing his gun at it. The hammerhead stood on it's hind legs and slammed it's front legs down on the ground, as if to support Jake's opinion.

"It's doing a territorial threat display," I whispered, "If we run it'll stampede. We'll be fine as long as we don't run and hold our ground."

Jake then ran forward and screamed in it's face as the hammerhead growled, then all of a sudden turned back.

"Ha ha! Yeah, come on! Show me what you got! Oh yeah, who's bad? That's right, that's what I'm talking about bitch. That's right; get your punk ass back to mummy. Yeah, you've got nothing. You keep running. Why don't you bring some of your friends, huh?" he gloated.

I felt something behind me, so I turned around slowly and saw...A THANATOR! I slowly backed away and yanked Jake's tail.

"What?" he growled, then his eyes widened when he noticed what was behind us.

"RUN YOU TWO," Grace screamed.

"You heard her!" Jake yelled, grabbing my arm and pulling me with him.

* * *

Jake pulled Kiseki along as the thanator charged after them. They hid beneath the roots of a tree. Jake shot at the thanator with his machine gun, which only served to enrage the thanator even further. Jake pulled Kiseki out, but then thanator took Jake's backpack into its mouth.

"JAKE!" she screamed.

"I got this!" he yelled, taking off the backpack then dropping unceremoniously to the ground. They ran until they reached a cliff's edge. "We gotta jump," Jake yelled over the rapids.

"What?" Kiseki yelled, "That's insane."

"Unless you want to be food for that thing we have no choice," he pointed out.

"Fine," she huffed, "On three."

"One."

"Two."

"THREE!" they screamed as they jumped off the edge.

* * *

Kiseki felt the splash of water sting against her skin. The rapids were so strong; she could feel the water pushing her down.

'Damn,' she thought, 'I'm not going to make it.'

She saw something coming towards her, but the water in her eyes made it hard to see. Suddenly whatever it was pulled her to the surface.

"Kiseki!" Jake yelled, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she said.

The two of them made it to the land.

* * *

"Grace," Kiseki said, trying to make contact with her radio, "Do you read me?" There was no response.

"Gyah!" she groaned, "You'd think that they'd waterproof their radios!"

"So what now?" Jake asked.

"For now we'll just stay here," Kiseki answered.

The hours passed by and it was growing dark. Jake tore off his jacket and made a torch, besides Kiseki's warnings that a torch would only attract other creatures or worse to their location.

"If we accidentally get these avatars eaten it's your fault, got it?" Kiseki growled, feeling pissed that Jake didn't believe her explanation on the bioluminescence of the plant life, that or he didn't understand a word of it. She pulled a Grace and went with the latter. 'She's going to kill us if anything happens to the avatars,' she thought.

* * *

"I'm gonna have to call it," Trudy said, "The colonel doesn't allow night ops. They'll just have to wait till morning."

"They're not going to make it till morning," Grace said sadly.

"Are you sure?" Norm asked, worried about his friend.

"If they run across the Na'vi Kiseki has the better chance of survival," Grace sighed, "I just hope that jarhead doesn't do anything stupid."

* * *

Neytiri watched as the two dreamwalkers paced through the forest. They weren't built like the others that she had seen before. There was a woman and man. The woman had strange hair and seemed to be angry with the male for some reason. No matter, dreamwalkers were not permitted here, she drew out her bow and notched in the arrow, preparing to shoot, she would shoot the male as he seemed to be the stronger of the two then the female. But before she could an atokirina floated down and landed on the arrow. 'Why?' she thought, taking the arrow out as the atokirina floated off, 'Why did Eywa send me that message?' She decided to follow them, to see if she can discern why Eywa prevented her from killing the aliens.

* * *

As for Kiseki and Jake, they later found themselves in quite a predicament, being surrounded by viperwolves and all. "Still don't believe me?" Kiseki asked, feeling very pissed off with Jake.

"Okay, I believe you," Jake hissed, "You have any idea how to get out of this situation."

"Well it's hard to think WHEN YOU'RE SURROUNDED!" she screamed, "And I have an idiot who refused to listen!"

"Look, I apologized..." he started but was cut off.

"You did NOT!"

A war cry of sorts came from above them. Jumping down from the trees was a Na'vi woman. She fired an arrow at the largest viperwolf. With her bow she knocked the smaller wolves out of the way. Jake dropped his spear/torch thing in surprise. Kiseki watched in awe the fluidity and elegance of the Na'vi woman's fighting style. 'If I'm not mistaken, this must be Neytiri,' Kiseki thought, thinking back to the pictures of the Omaticaya that Norm had shown her on earth, 'Crap, she's like a princess to the Omaticaya.' Neytiri hissed at the remaining viperwolves, scaring them off. She then walked towards the wounded one, ignoring Jake and Kiseki's presence. She drew out her dagger and ran it through the viperwolf's heart, reciting softly, _"Forgive me, my brother. May your spirit run with the Great Mother. Forgive me."_

"_I am sorry," _Kiseki said slowly, hoping that her Na'vi was understandable.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the three as Neytiri sat with the viperwolf. Jake then broke the silence, "Look, I know you probably don't understand, but if you hadn't come along when you did we would've been screwed."

"_These sky people," _Neytiri sighed.

Kiseki was about to intervene when Jake decided to say, "Thank you."

Neytiri sighed again, then ran off.

"Hey wait!" he called out, following her, "Where are you going? Wait up! Just wait! Hey, slow down! I just wanted to say thanks for killing those things."

She turned around and whacked him on the head with her bow. "Ah, damn," he swore.

"Don't thank," she said angrily, "You don't thank for this. This is sad. Very sad only."

"_I am sorry," _Kiseki said, _"You are right, they did not need to die."_

"_You know our language," _Neytiri said, _"Are you here for the same reasons as Grace Augustine?"_

"_No," _she answered, _"I came to your planet to see the forest."_

"Bah," Neytiri scowled, "How can you see the forest if you are blind?" She turned to Jake, "And you, you are like a baby. Making noise, don't know what to do!"

"Fine," Jake said slowly, "But if you loved your little forest friends why save us? What's the thinking?"

"You have a strong heart," she answered, then turned to Kiseki, "And an open mind. But you are both ignorant. Like children!"

"_Well if we are like children perhaps you should teach us," _Kiseki pointed out, _"We need your help."_

"Sky people cannot learn," Neytiri snarled, "You are blind, you cannot see."

"Then teach us to see," Jake said.

"No one can teach you to see," she said, continuing on her path.

"Wai-ah!" Jake started before almost falling off, luckily both Kiseki and Neytiri grabbed onto him before he could fall.

As they made to follow Neytiri she suddenly froze. Kiseki followed Neytiri's gaze to find atokirina floating down to them. Jake made to swat one away but Neytiri held his arm. "Atokirina," she gasped.

"Seeds from the Tree of Souls," Kiseki said in awe as one of them landed in her hand. More floated down, landing on the both of them.

"_It is a sign," _Neytiri whispered, "Come."

Kiseki and Jake stood on the branch, dumbfounded at what had just happened. "Come!" Neytiri said, louder.

Kiseki and Jake hurried after her, but some rope came out of nowhere and entwined Jake's ankles, causing him to fall to the ground.

"Jake!" she cried out, as another rope came from below to tie her ankles. She fell and almost landed on top of Jake. The two of them stood up to find themselves surrounded by more Na'vi, all of the Na'vis had expressions of hatred, disgust, curiosity in some and fear.

Neytiri jumped down and yelled, _"Calm people, calm." _She turned to the leader of the group, _"What are you doing Tsu'tey?"_

'Tsu'tey?' Kiseki thought, 'He's going to be the next Olo'eyktan. If Neytiri is like a princess, then he's like a prince!'

"_These demons are forbidden here!" _Tsu'tey yelled angrily.

"_There had been a sign," _Neytiri explained, _"This is a matter for the Tsahik."_

Tsu'tey turned to some of the other warriors. _"Bring them," _he ordered, _"Let's ride!"_

"What's going on?" Jake whispered.

"Silence," Tsu'tey ordered from his direhorse.

Kiseki made a shush motion towards Jake, hoping he would shut up.

* * *

They were led to the Kelutral of the Omaticaya, where many Na'vi watched with shock with fearful eyes as the two dreamwalkers. Some reached out to touch them, only to withdraw at the last minute. "Nice to meet you too," Jake muttered under his breath.

"Shh," Kiseki hissed.

Before them stood a male Na'vi dressed more ornately than the others. 'If I'm not mistaken that must be the Olo'eyktan,' Kiseki thought, 'Eytukan.'

"_My father, I see you," _Neytiri greeted.

The Olo'eyktan frowned, _"These creatures, why did you bring them here?"_

"_I was going to kill them, but there was a sign from Eywa," _she answered.

"_I have said no dreamwalker must come to this place," _he said sternly, then turned to us, _"Their alien smell fills my nose."_

"What's going on?" Jake asked.

Neytiri's ear flicked then turned to Jake, "My Father is deciding whether or not to kill you too."

"Your Father," Jake said, then walked forward for a handshake, "It's very nice to meet you sir."

Kiseki yanked him back by the ear.

"Ouch!" he yelped. The warriors came forward, holding the both of them back.

"Just speak when you're spoken too," Kiseki hissed.

"_Step back," _an imposing female voice called from the upper level of the kelutral. Coming down the spiral staircase was an older Na'vi woman, also ornately decorated. 'The Tsahik Mo'at,' Kiseki thought, 'Man, Norm would kill to be here.'

"_Step back," _the Tsahik ordered again, _"I will examine these aliens for myself."_

She circled the both of them slowly, examining their queues, tails and features. She tilted Kiseki's face up, looking into her eyes. _"Your eyes are tinged with the colour brown," _she stated, _"Interesting." _The Tsahik stood back, "What are your names and why is it that you come here?"

'Crap,' Kiseki thought, 'She's talking to me and I'm tongue-tied, shit!'

"My name is Jake Sully," Jake started slowly, "And I'm a warrior, of the Jarhead Clan."

"_A warrior," _Tsu'tey said incredulously, _"I could kill him easily."_

"_No!" _the Olo'eyktan ordered, holding an arm out in front of Tsu'tey, _"This is the very first warrior dreamwalker that we have seen. We may be able to learn from him."_

The Tsahik turned to Kiseki, _"You know our language, don't you? I can see it in your eyes, there is no confusion."_

"_Yes," _Kiseki said, _"My name is Kiseki Stewart. The reason I came to your world was to see the forest, but if I am to truly see I need to learn."_

"_Your name is strange," _the Tsahik noted. She took out a long, knife-like thorn and struck Kiseki's shoulder with it; she took it to her mouth and licked the blood off the tip. She repeated the process with Jake.

"It is decided," she said, then turned to Neytiri, "My daughter will teach you Jakesully." She then beckoned another Na'vi woman forward. She had her hair pinned back with a purple flower for decoration. "And Ninat will teach Kisekistewart."

"Mother, that is not fair," Neytiri protested.

The Tsahik frowned at her, then looked at Jake and Kiseki, "Learn well the both of you. And we will see if your insanity can be cured."

* * *

A/N: Gosh, I had to look up so many script sights to get this accurately. I hope I did well enough. And a HUGE thank you to all the kind people who have either faved, alerted or reviewed. I really appreciate the feedback. Thank you all.


	5. First Time in the Clan

**First Time in the Clan  
Disclaimer: **I don't own Avatar.

* * *

As the Tsahik had made her judgement that we could stay with the Omaticaya I felt immense relief that the avatars would be in safe hands. I looked at Ninat, trying to read her facial expression. She beckoned me to follow her, so I did. We ended up at a hollow within the Kelutral. _"Here,"_ she said, handing me a necklace-top thing and a loincloth.

"_Do I really have to wear this?"_ I asked.

"_If you are going to join us you must at least look like us_," Ninat answered.

As soon as I was in the traditional dress of the Na'vi Ninat ran her hands through my hair roughly.

"_What are you doing?"_ I asked, stepping away from her.

"_Your hair is styled in such a strange way_," she stated, _"There is not enough for me to braid."_

"_That's okay,"_ I said, _"My position is very low, it wouldn't be right for me to decorate myself in a way not befitting my position."_

"_For one of the sky people you are smart," _Ninat said appreciatively, _"But with your hair styled in such a manner, you stand out like...as you sky people say _a sore thumb."

"Ah."

* * *

Jake was feeling very annoyed, Neytiri had made him change into traditional dress and the loincloth-thing was going up his butt! He tried to follow after Neytiri through the crowd, however unlike Neytiri he had accidentally stepped on a few tails. "Well don't stand up or anything," he muttered darkly.

He sat down next to Neytiri and looked up to find a Na'vi man sitting next to Sutey or whatever his name was, glaring at him.

"Hey there," he greeted, only to have the aforementioned Na'vi glare coldly at him.

* * *

As the prayer of thanks to Eywa was finished Ninat handed a leaf with food placed on it to Kiseki. _"Thank you," _she said; gratefully taking the leaf, she was very hungry after all. She ate some of what appeared to be some kind of meat on the leaf._ "This is really good," _she said after a mouthful.

"_It is teylu," _Ninat said, _"I think in your language it means _larvae grub."

"_Still yummy," _she said, digging in to the meal.

"Hey," a voice said.

Kiseki looked up at Jake, her cheeks full of food. He chuckled before taking a seat next to her.

"Look," he said, "I just wanted to apologize. You were right about the bio-lumi-whatever you were talking about."

Kiseki swallowed then said, "I'm sorry too. I should've translated science to baby."

"Hey!" he exclaimed, eliciting a few glares from some nearby Na'vi.

"Sorry," he said, before turning back to face Kiseki, "They don't like us do they."

"And this is the part where I say no shit isn't it?" she scowled at him.

Jake rolled his eyes, "I'm gonna go to sleep soon, do you want me to pass anything on to Grace and the others?"

"Just tell her where we are," she answered, "And tell her I'm going to explore for a bit before I unlink."

As Jake followed Neytiri up to the upper branches of the Kelutral he glanced back at Kiseki, he was approached by Quaritch and asked to pass any useful information gathered about the Na'vi to him. And now that he was among them he could gather some good intel. However he wasn't the only one, Kiseki was there too. 'I just hope she doesn't find out,' he thought, climbing up the tree.

* * *

Kiseki put the leaf away and walked towards the base of the Kelutral, examining the inner structure. 'I wonder if we ever had anything like this on earth?' she wondered.

"_What are you doing?"_ Ninat asked, _"It will be time to sleep soon."_

"_I'm just looking around the Home Tree," _she answered, _"I've never seen anything like it before."_

"_You do not have trees on your world?" _Ninat asked, _"How do you live?"_

"_I don't see it as living," _Kiseki answered, _"Our planet is dying, we exist, but we are not living."_

Ninat seemed to be raising an eyebrow, _"I don't understand how that works."_

"_You don't have to," _Kiseki said, _"Well, it's time for me to let this body rest."_

Ninat nodded, _"Follow me, I will take you to the hammocks."_

Kiseki lay down in her hammock, this forest was strange, but there was a beauty as well, a beauty that both fascinated and frightened her. She looked up at the canopy of the tree above her. 'I really want to dive into this whole world,' she thought, 'But this is a dream after all.'

* * *

I woke up in the capsule again, partially blinded by light as the lid was opened. Grace stood above me. "I saw small waves of activity on your brain scan and figured that you were having trouble sleeping," she explained, "So I unlinked you from here."

"Thanks," I said, "I don't think I was ever going to get to sleep."

"You want to go eat something?" she asked.

I shook my head, "Actually, I'm going to do my video log. I can't believe I've forgotten it."

"Okay then."

As she left I turned the camera on. "Okay, this camera logs in the time, so I don't have to say that. However it is pretty late," I said, "I'm at the link room. This is my first log, so consider this catch-up. Today we went to the forest with the hopes that either Norm or I would be taken in by the Omaticaya. However instead it was Jake and I who were taken in. We got chased by a thanator and found by Neytiri. Now if you don't know already Neytiri is like a princess, so to speak, of the Omaticaya. I wonder how Norm feels about all this. This was his biggest dream after all. Or maybe I should be a bit happy, with 90% nudity a must to blend in it would be awkward, him being an ex and all. I chuckled at the thought. "Nah, it's terrible for me to feel that way. He must be gutted that Jake, with no knowledge or appreciation for Na'vi culture was the one who got taken in, and not him. Man, I'm going off topic here. I think there's an irony in being here. The irony is that humans have to study to learn how to manage the environment without harming it and the Na'vi, they don't have to study at all. Managing this environment just comes naturally to them. I wonder why we went a different way."

* * *

Norm picked at his breakfast, in all honesty he wasn't really hungry. When Jake told them he and Kiseki were taken in by the Omaticaya he almost broke out into a cold sweat. How could Jake have been taken in? It was his dream to learn more from the Na'vi themselves, but it was Jake and Kiseki that were learning, not him. All of the other avatar drivers, even Maria, were crowded around Jake, wondering how he had done it. He was surprised that Kiseki was nowhere to be seen. He looked up to find Jake basking in the attention that he was being given. 'Smug bastard,' he thought angrily, taking his plate and coffee and heading straight to the link room, hoping that no one would rub it in that he was stuck here like them. As soon as he got there he found Kiseki, she was fast asleep in front of the video log camera.

"Hey," he said, gently shaking her awake.

"Norm," she yawned out, stretching, "What time is it?"

"Pretty early," he answered, "You want some breakfast."

"Nah, that's your food," she said, standing up, "I'll just go down to the cafeteria."

"Actually by the time you get to the cafeteria it'll be time to link. Village life starts early," Norm muttered, "Here." He held out the plate of toast.

"Thank you," she said, taking a piece and chewing slowly.

"What's it like?" Norm asked.

"It's different," she answered, "And difficult. They don't trust us. So I guess Jake and I have to earn their trust."

"I can understand why they wouldn't trust Jake," Norm said, "But why you?"

Kiseki shook her head, "It's not just me and Jake. It's all of us. They don't trust humans."

Norm sighed, "It's understandable. What with the Sec-ops shooting at them with no thought of the consequences."

There was chatter as Jake and Grace came in.

"Can you help me link up?" Kiseki asked, hiding the partially eaten toast before climbing into the link capsule.

* * *

She opened her eyes to the green foliage of the Kelutral. Sitting up she found Ninat standing before her with a small, brown flower in her hand. _"I have figured out what I could do with your hair," _she said triumphantly.

"_You didn't have to come up with anything," _Kiseki protested as Ninat made two small braids in her hair, pinning them to the back of Kiseki's head with the flower.

"_You will blend in better," _Ninat answered, ignoring Kiseki's protests.

Later on they went down to the base of the Kelutral to meet with various other home-tenders and children who were going out to collect fruits for breakfast. Kiseki held the basket as Ninat filled it with fruits. _"We will be collecting fruits for the hunters," _Ninat said, then held out to fruits to Kiseki. Both were of the same size and colour, however one had dark green leaves on the stem attached to it and the other had light green leaves. _"We can tell when a fruit is ready for picking by the colour of the leaves on the stem," _Ninat explained, handing both fruits to Kiseki as Kiseki had put the basket down, _"Try them and see if you can tell me which one is ripe."_

She bit into the fruit with light green leaves, only to spit out the mouthful. The fruit was as sour as a lemon.

Ninat chuckled, _"Balance the basket on your head and eat the other fruit as we walk. We will not have time to eat when we are done. So we eat while we work."_

Kiseki asked after eating part of the other fruit, _"Why don't the hunters collect their own fruit?"_

"_They already risk their lives so the clan will have meat to eat and to protect us as well," _Ninat answered.

The two of them walked deeper into the forest. _"You are also a hunter aren't you?" _Kiseki asked, _"The Tsahik had said you would teach me to be a hunter as well. Why do you still pick fruits like the home-tenders?"_

Ninat shrugged, _"I trained to become a hunter. However I found myself more suited to the path of a home-tender and healer." _

Kiseki rolled her eyes, _"I myself would prefer to have the freedom of being a hunter."_

"_Well to each their own," _Ninat said, throwing a few more fruits into the basket, _"Come. We will deliver the fruit now."_

The two of them arrived at the Kelutral just as the hunters were rising from their hammocks. "I see you Ninat," one of them greeted, ignoring Kiseki. His hair was longer than hers and was braided with bright colourful beads serving for decoration. Kiseki held her head high, not allowing herself to be intimidated by their glares at her.

"_Did the dreamwalker pick any of the fruit?" _a familiar voice asked angrily.

Kiseki glanced up to find Tsu'tey glaring at her. She looked directly into his slanted eyes as she answered, _"Ninat is the one who picked the fruit. All I did was carry the basket."_

"_You dare look straight at me," _he snarled.

"_Because I am answering the question you asked," _she answered coolly, turning away.

Tsu'tey reached out and grabbed her arm, _"I am not finished with you."_

"_I answered your question, what more is there for us to talk about?" _she asked, steadily meeting his gaze.

Tsu'tey was surprised that the female dreamwalker had the gall to talk to him in that cool-headed manner. Unlike other women who were too shy to look into his eyes, she was not afraid to meet his gaze. Her own round, brown-gold eyes stared at him with coldness in their glare.

"_You are right," _he said disgruntled, _"You have no position in the clan, so I cannot challenge you."_

"_Then wait," _she smirked, _"When I pass the initiation I will accept whatever challenge you throw before me."_

The hunters laughed at the dreamwalker's audacity. Ninat's eyes widened at Kiseki's attitude, pulling her away from the still laughing hunters.

* * *

As soon as they were at some distance away from the hunters Ninat scolded Kiseki, _"What were you thinking? Challenging Tsu'tey like that!"_

"_I am determined to prove myself to your people," _Kiseki answered sullenly; _"I do not wish to be looked down on any more."_

"_Even so, but there is a reason that he will be next Olo'eyktan," _Ninat said, _"He is the best fighter and hunter in the clan. Even if you do pass the initiation he has more experience than you and you will most likely lose."_

"_Well not accepting his challenge makes my chances of beating him zero, so I won't know until I try," _Kiseki smirked.

"_You are crazy," _Ninat said, whacking her on the head.

* * *

Meanwhile, later on that morning, Jake was at the direhorse training field with Neytiri. She was explaining the basics of something called tsaheylu. She had told him it was the bond between rider and animal. Jake rolled his eyes in annoyance; basically all he had to do was plug his braid into the animal's receptor-thing, it seemed simple enough.

"Okay, I got this," he said, mounting the direhorse, or as Neytiri had called it, pa'li. Neytiri nodded at him as he took his braid and connected it to the pa'li's receptor-thing. Both the pa'li and Jake's eyes widened at the odd sensation. The pa'li bucked up, almost causing Jake to fall off.

"_Good," _Neytiri said, hoping to calm the pa'li down, then she looked up at Jake, "That is tsaheylu, the bond. Feel her, feel her heartbeat, her breath. Feel her strong legs. Tell her what to do inside. For now you tell her what to do."

"Forward," Jake commanded.

The pa'li raced forward so fast Jake flew off it. He landed face first in the mud, his mouth was filled with dirt and horse shit. Neytiri couldn't help but laugh at how silly the dreamwalker looked. Jake stood up, spitting dirt out of his mouth. He glanced over to the still giggling princess, he had to admit, she looked pretty. 'Whoa,' he thought with a start, 'I did not just think she was pretty...is pretty, dammit Jake don't let your thoughts go that way.'

The thundering of hoof-beats brought their attention to the hunting party that was on their way out to the forest.

"_I see you Tsu'tey," _Neytiri greeted.

"_I see you Neytiri," _he answered, then glared at Jake, "You don't belong here. You should go away."

"Nah, you'd miss me," Jake smirked, "I knew you could speak English."

Tsu'tey turned to Neytiri, _"He cannot learn our ways, a rock sees more."_

Neytiri rolled her eyes and slapped Tsu'tey's pa'li to remind him of his task at hand, to hunt for meat for the clan.

Tsu'tey smirked slightly before riding off with the rest of the hunters.

* * *

Kiseki could feel her whole body ache as she was climbing up the tree. She had trained at the avatar compound of course, but this was on a whole other level. Ninat had been helping her increase her endurance in the forest. They had run, jumped and climbed. _"Hurry up," _Ninat called out from below, _"It will be time for the midday meal soon!"_

Kiseki was still at the top of the tree, at the corner of her eye she saw a long vine that was at least three-quarters the length of the tree. 'Here goes nothing,' she thought, jumping out to the vine and sliding down. She soon reached near the end of the vine and jumped to a nearby branch, however it was a weak branch that cracked and broke as soon as the impact occurred. "AAAAARGH!" she screamed as she fell down to the ground, landing on her stomach with the branch on top of her.

Ninat strolled over, _"Are you always this reckless?"_

"_Only in this body,"_ Kiseki answered, standing up, brushing herself off, she was lucky that the avatar had the same bone make up as the Na'vi, with the same naturally occurring carbon fibres.

Kiseki almost choked with laughter as she saw Jake covered with mud.

"Don't say anything," Jake scowled.

Kiseki chuckled, "At least you didn't get rope burn, jump on an unstable branch and fall four storeys to the ground."

"Say what?" Jake gaped.

"Endurance training with Ninat," she explained.

Jake paled, "Neytiri's taking me endurance training after lunch."

"Good luck jarhead."

"Hey!"

* * *

I had later gone pa'li training with Ninat. By the end of it I was even more mud-coated than Jake was. Not to mention the pa'li took great enjoyment in head-butting me, go figure. The hunting party returned to observe much to my "delight".

"_You will have to do better than that," _one of them sneered.

I was beginning to regret my cockiness earlier.

Later on it was time for dinner and there was space around me as I hadn't had the time to wash myself. Jake came over and took one whiff at me before running for the spot next to Neytiri. 'Do I really smell that bad?' I wondered, holding up my arm to take a smell...gosh, I stank! _"Would you mind if I sat next to you?" _an unfamiliar voice asked me.

I looked up to find a female Na'vi, and judging by the way her hair was styled and by the decoration on her body I figured that she was a hunter. She had eyes that were the shape of teardrops.

"_The seat?" _she asked.

"_Go ahead," _I said, gesturing to the area around me.

"_My name is Peyral," _she introduced herself.

"_I see you Peyral," _I said.

"_I see you Kisekistewart," _she replied.

"_Just Kiseki is fine," _I corrected her.

She looked at me, slightly confused, and then smiled, _"Kiseki."_

I took two leaves filled with food and handed one to her.

"_Thank you," _she said.

After a few mouthfuls of food I asked, _"Why sit with me?"_

"_This morning, I saw you face off against our male warriors," _she said, _"In particular against Tsu'tey."_

I felt my face flush in embarrassment, _"I was out of line."_

Peyral laughed, _"I am not reprimanding you. I admire that reckless courage of yours. It makes me wonder if Ninat is suited to teach you."_

"_Why?" _she asked.

"_When you were talking to Tsu'tey, the look in your eyes was that of a fighter," _she answered, _"And I am willing to teach you."_

"_May I think about it first?" _I asked.

"_Of course."_

That night I flopped onto my hammock, now clean, but my muscles still ached. Peyral's offer was the last thing on my mind as I unlinked.

* * *

A/N: Yeah, I am so sorry. I am a slow typer, mainly because it's the holidays and I keep on gettin distracted. A BIG thank you to all those who subscribed and faved. However I would really like some feedback, like, what do you think is bad/good with the story? Stuff like that, I would really appreciate it. :D


	6. Choosing a Path

**Choosing a Path  
Disclaimer: **I don't own Avatar.

* * *

Kiseki pushed the capsule lid open, stomach grumbling loudly as she did.

"Care to explain this?" Norm asked, holding up the piece of toast she had "eaten" earlier.

"Er, ah," she stuttered, not sure what excuse she could come up with for boycotting breakfast.

"Kiseki!" Norm exclaimed, "You know the rules, we're not supposed to link up on an empty stomach if you're going to spend the whole day linked to the avatar!"

"I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"Come on," Norm said, pulling her up, "You're going to get some food in your system, even if I have to force-feed you."

"Damn," she cursed, almost collapsing on Norm, "Don't say I told you so or I'll kill you."

* * *

The two of them made it to the cafeteria; Norm placed a heavily laden plate of beef casserole in front of Kiseki, "Eat."

Kiseki slowly ate the huge meal, picking slightly at the food. It didn't taste half as good as the teylu did.

"You okay?" Norm asked.

Kiseki shrugged, chewing slowly through a mouthful of beef.

"Kiseki, we're best friends, I can tell when something's wrong," Norm pressed on.

Kiseki put down her spoon, "Peyral offered to teach me in place of Ninat. She told me I had the look of a fighter in my eyes."

"Fascinating," Norm said, "Are you going to take up on her offer?"

"I don't know," Kiseki answered, "We need to learn more about the Omaticaya if we want things to go on peacefully here. If I were to accept then I wouldn't be able to gain information on how the healers used the plants of Pandora, because that information could aid us in our research."

Norm nodded his head, "You raise a pretty good point there. But if you decline Peyral's offer she may be offended."

"I know, it's a lose-lose situation," she mumbled, picking up her spoon again.

* * *

"There's a lot that you're scans are missing," said Jake, gesturing to the inside of the scan of the Home Tree, "There's an inner structure of columns in the inner circumference of the tree. There are also two main spiraling columns in the centre, which is how they are getting up and down the tree."

"Well we'll need accurate scans of all inner structures," Quaritch said, "And who do you think will be getting those for us."

"Me," Jake deadpanned.

Selfridge ran a hand through his hair in annoyance, "Look, normally having an indigenous population wouldn't piss me off, but it's just that their damn tree is on the largest unobtanium deposit within thirty clicks anywhere. We try to give them clothes, roads, churches, education, but no, they like mud."

"So you want me to get them to move," Jake concluded.

"Yes! Find me a carrot that they'll follow," Selfridge said, "You've got three months to give them incentive to move. After then the bulldozers are coming, and if they haven't moved it's their loss."

"Even if it is good stock, it's going to look bad if you kill the indigenous," Jake pointed out.

Selfridge smirked, "If there's one thing investors hate more than bad publicity it's a bad quarterly statement."

"Yeah, but we also need to watch out for Kiseki, she's with me too. And if she finds out and tells Grace and the others what I'm providing, they won't hesitate to kick me out of the program," Jake said.

"Well make sure she doesn't find out," Selfridge said.

"Don't worry," Quaritch sneered, "We can always make sure those limp-dick science majors don't interfere with OUR operation."

Jake had to admit, he didn't like the look in Quaritch's eyes when he said that.

* * *

Max Patel shuddered at Quaritch's words, he didn't doubt that Quaritch would be willing to open fire on their department if they dare tried to interfere. The man was a tyrant! 'I have to tell Grace though, we can't just do nothing,' he thought anxiously, walking away quickly in the hopes that no one had seen him.

* * *

As soon as he called together the rest of the team participating in their operation, excluding Jake, he told them all that he had found out.

"Well we should kick him out!" Maria said angrily.

"But that would indicate that we know and they'll shut down the whole program," Norm protested, "All our work would go to waste."

"Norm's right," Grace said, "We can't afford to lose the opportunity that Kiseki and...Jake had gotten us. Even if Jake is providing them information we still have Kiseki giving us valuable information to aid our research as well."

"I know, I could try warning the Omaticaya of what's going to happen," Kiseki suggested.

Max shook his head, "They still don't trust you enough, even if you did tell them they probably wouldn't take you too seriously. And even if they did, they'd try to attack the base and that would only make things worse."

Kiseki sighed, "Damn. But we still can't let Selfridge and Quaritch manage this thing under our noses."

"She's right about that," Maria nodded, "We've got three months before the bulldozers come, right? We could try to reach a diplomatic solution before then through Kiseki."

"Well, maybe if Kiseki was to take the same lessons as Jake, she'd gain their trust quicker than if she continued where she was," Norm said, thinking back to Kiseki's mentioning of Peyral's offer, "Kiseki was offered lessons in being a hunter and fighter from Peyral, rather than a hunter and healer."

"Is this true?" Grace asked.

Kiseki nodded, "But then we'll lose the information for our research."

Grace shrugged, "Well we could always gain that information the hard way, through sample-taking and analysis. Reaching a diplomatic solution, as Maria suggested, is probably the best path now."

"But there's still the issue of Jake, and his giving intel to Quaritch," Norm said.

The five of them thought about it for a while before Max piped up, "Isn't there a mobile base up at the site 26. The flux vortex there would make it difficult to report and distancing Jake from Quaritch means that we could try to pressure him to see things from our perspective."

"We could work from there," Grace said, "But there's only four link beds, either Norm or Maria would have to stay behind."

Norm and Maria looked at each other awkwardly.

Grace sighed, "It's getting late, why don't we go sleep on it. Besides, Kiseki's got a pretty big day tomorrow, considering she'll be with Peyral instead of Ninat that training is going to be a lot more strenuous than what Ninat has been teaching her."

* * *

It was decided, once Grace got permission to work from the mobile base we'd try to sway Jake to seeing things from our perspective. Maria doubted that he would, so did I. "Norm, can you stop fidgeting?" I asked the top bunk shifted slightly every time he moved.

Norm jumped down from the top bunk, "Can you believe the nerve of that guy! He has the opportunity of a lifetime and he's throwing it away for those RDA goons!"

"Calm down Norm!" I yelled, holding my hands over his mouth. "Those RDA goons are the ones financing the avatar program, without them we wouldn't be here, and you and I both know they wouldn't hesitate to shut down everything we worked for if they even got one inkling that we know what they're doing with Jake."

Norm pulled my hands from his mouth slowly, "I know."

He sat down on my bed and I sat next to him.

"Have some faith," I said, "Have faith that we can stop this thing before it snowballs. Have faith that your time will come soon."

"To have faith requires a deity," he said bitterly, "And look at our own. God? Jesus? They may as well have abandoned us."

"I know Norm," I whispered, "I know."

* * *

Norm was significantly calmer in the morning, he knew what was at stake but he still felt jealous of Jake. "Hey," Kiseki said, poking him in the shoulder, "I'll be watching you."

Norm smiled, "And I'll be watching you to make sure that you eat this time."

Kiseki rolled her eyes, "Let's go sit with Maria."

"Morning Norm, Morning Kiseki," she greeted, "I got you breakfast."

"Norm told you didn't he," Kiseki sighed.

Maria nodded, "Toast and baked beans today."

Kiseki wrinkled her nose, "I hate baked beans."

"Just eat!" the other two said out of exasperation.

* * *

After a quick breakfast in which Norm and Maria almost force-fed Kiseki the three of them hurried to the avatar link centre. "Remember to accept Peyral's offer," Maria whispered.

Kiseki nodded, but she was quite nervous at how Ninat would react.

"I'll see you on the other side," Jake said cheerfully, it was as if he hadn't betrayed their trust.

Norm's fist twitched noticeably.

Kiseki chuckled before leaning back into the capsule, "Keep an eye on our green monster Maria."

"Sure," she smiled, closing the capsule lid.

* * *

I sat up in my hammock and stretched my arms out. My stomach grumbled from hunger. _"Are you ready?"_ Ninat asked from the branch above me, holding the basket.

"_Yes," _I answered, jumping up to the branch to join her.

I was holding the basket again as Ninat pointed out the many different fruits and vegetation in the forest. I chewed slowly on a white fruit that was shaped like an apple. I was wondering how to tell Ninat of Peyral's offer.

We walked up to the warriors; they didn't eye me warily as they had the day before, which was an improvement. Tsu'tey still made an effort in not acknowledging my existence, which was nothing new.

"_I see you Kiseki," _Peyral greeted, taking one of the white fruits out of the basket I held.

"_You know each other?" _Ninat asked, slightly surprised.

Peyral nodded, _"I had offered to teach Kiseki in your place."_

"_What?" _Ninat gasped, and then turned to me, _"Will you accept her offer?"_

Peyral looked at me expectantly.

"_The life of a warrior does fascinate me," _I finally admitted.

"_But Jakesully is already training to be a warrior," _Ninat protested.

"_What does that have to do with anything?"_I asked.

_"Is he not your partner?" _she asked me.

_"No, he is not my partner," _I answered coldly, I didn't want to be associated with Jake anymore than I had to.

"_So you are not mated," _Peyral stated.

_"No,"_ I answered as I stopped laughing.

Ninat shook her head, _"We should bring this up with Mo'at."_

* * *

I walked slowly to the pa'li, _"Hey girl."_

_"See if you can replicate what we did yesterday," _Ninat instructed me.

_"Okay," _I said, jumping on.

_"Will you accept Peyral's offer?" _Ninat asked as she absentmindedly stroked the pa'li.

"_Probably,"_ I answered honestly.

"_It is very dangerous,"_ Ninat pointed out,_ "…you may make the bond now."_

I took my queue and connected it to the pa'li. 'Calm,' I thought, 'You know who I am. I tried to ride you yesterday. Go forward slowly.'

"_You are doing better, try to go a little bit faster,"_ she said.

'Faster.'

This proved to be another mistake as the pa'li bolted forward, leaving me behind in the mud.

"_You need to strengthen your leg muscles and grip so you don't fall off again,"_ Peyral said, walking over to help me up.

_"Thank you for the advice."_

"_So it seems I was mistaken in thinking that you and Jakesully were mated,"_ a voice said from behind Peyral. It was Mo'at. She then turned to Peyral,_ "Are you willing to teach Kisekistewart?"_

"_Yes,"_ Peyral answered.

Mo'at then turned to me,_ "Are you sure you want to take this path? It is very dangerous."_

Ninat pulled me away, _"May I please speak to her for a moment?"_

_"Of course."_

* * *

Ninat took Kiseki to a rather small clearing nearby. _"Are you crazy?"_ she hissed, _"Do you really know how dangerous it is to take the path of a fighter?"_

"_I know the risks," _Kiseki answered calmly, she needed to gain their trust and learning to be a healer would take longer.

"_Are you sure?"_ Ninat asked.

Kiseki gave a firm, resolute nod.

Ninat sighed, _"It seems I cannot change your mind." _She ran out of the clearing, leaving Kiseki behind.

'What's up with her?' Kiseki thought, walking back to Mo'at and Peyral.

* * *

"_I will accept your offer,"_ Kiseki said when she reached them.

"_If the matter has been settled I will leave now,"_ Mo'at said.

Peyral beckoned to Kiseki, _"Come, ride again."_

* * *

Jake held up the bow and notched the arrow in place. Neytiri pushed him and he fell back a few steps. "Your core muscles need to be stronger," she said, taking the bow and arrow from him, "You should go exercise those muscles for the next hour."

As Jake started some sit-ups he thought back to the deal Quaritch had made him. 'It would be nice to get rid of that wheelchair,' he thought, 'Where would I go from there though? I'd have money, sure, and legs, but that money won't last forever. I'd end up back into military work and possibly get re-injured.' Jake paused for a moment, 'Unlike here, this body is stronger. And this world isn't dying.'

"Did I tell you to stop?" Neytiri asked, looking down at Jake.

"No ma'am," he muttered under his breath, getting back to his sit ups.

* * *

_"You are still being vague with your orders,"_ Peyral scolded as Kiseki was covered with mud yet again.

_"Is it lunch time yet?"_ she asked as her stomach rumbled.

Peyral nodded, _"Come, you will eat with me and the other female warriors of the clan."_

_"Okay."_

* * *

Kiseki was glad that she could avoid Jake; she wasn't in the mood to deal with him at the moment. 'And here I was thinking that he wasn't so bad,' she thought morosely, eating slowly, 'Oh well, this will give me incentive to work harder and earn the trust of the Omaticaya. I don't want this to end in a war.'

"_Are you okay?"_Peyral asked.

"_Just musing on what life is all about," _Kiseki answered.

Peyral smiled fiercely,_ "Your life will be that of a warrior soon. I will make sure of it."_

"_Okay," _Kiseki said with enthusiasm.

* * *

Later that day Peyral took Kiseki running through the uppermost sturdy branches to strengthen her legs. _"Stop," _she ordered, holding an arm out to prevent Kiseki from running any further. It was fortunate that Kiseki had stopped on time as the branch there were running on had come to an end. _"What now?" _Kiseki asked.

"_We go back the other way," _Peyral answered, _"We have a long way to go before you are strong enough."_

* * *

Her legs felt like lead when dinner came around. _"Tomorrow we will try to ride the pa'li again and test your climbing skills," _Peyral said.

"_Okay, would you mind if I sat with Ninat?" _she asked, looking for the healer.

"_Of course not," _Peyral answered, beckoning her onwards.

Kiseki quickly navigated her way through the throngs of the na'vi before finding Ninat. _"I see you Ninat," _she greeted, walking over and taking the seat next to her.

"_I see you," _she said coldly.

"_Are you okay?" _Kiseki asked, _"You're acting different."_

"_Oh really," _Ninat said, absentmindedly giving Kiseki a leaf filled with food.

Kiseki sighed, _"I had hoped that we could be friends."_

Ninat scowled, _"How? You will be spending all your time learning from Peyral."_

"_I know, but I still use the hammock next to yours, I can still sit with you at meal times and if Peyral doesn't mind I can still pick fruit with you in the morning."_

"_That is still little time."_

"_But that's better than nothing, right?" _Kiseki pointed out, _"Just as a little food is better than no food at all, a little time spent together is better than no time at all."_

Ninat turned to face Kiseki, _"I know that, but..."_

"_But what?" _Kiseki asked.

"_It's embarassing," _she said shyly.

Kiseki smiled gently, _"Well, that's your secret to tell and I won't push you to tell me. Friends wait after all."_

Ninat smiled in return, _"Thank you."_

* * *

A/N: Okay, I know it's been ages since I've last updated. I aplogize. I've had so much to do for school and I aplogize for that, but you must understand that my schoolwork is my highest priority right now. Anyway, this may be the last I can update for a while because in 11 days I will be going to Japan for two weeks. So this is just a heads up. I will continue writing in my spare time, but just understand that it is difficult for me to be consistent with my updates. A big thank you to all the people who have faved, alerted or reviewed, I am sorry that I can no longer answer each one individually.


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